remains vs war photographer comparison

Themes: reality of conflict/war, suffering, guilt, those left behind, on the front line 

Tones: haunting

• Both suggest war is inevitable & a common feature of humanity 

Remains- structure

• Poem written in a monologue from pov of speaker & is an anecdote which consists of mainly unrhymed quatrains/ told in present tense to >> a flashback (symptom of PTSD)

• Final stanza consists of 2 lines & thus stands out, >> the fact that the speaker cannot rid himself of the memory of the killing 

• Alt. Could imply disintegration in speaker’s mind

• Caesura- breaks in the rhythm suggests the speaker is hesitant & trying to gain composure but failing 

• Enjambment between lines >> his conversational tone & gives it a fast pace especially when >> the horror of killing

• to expose the after effects of war on individuals who participated in it

War photographer- language

• “A hundred agonies in black & white”-  emotive metaphor to describe his photos. Having the pictures printed confirm/solidify the suffering they show 

• - it’s as if the photographer is a “priest is preparing to intone a mass”… >> how photographer has a solemn role to carry out & acknowledging the lives lost at war 

• -  “all flesh is grass” is biblical allusion to one of the prophets of Isaiah , in which life is explained to be transitory

• Explores damaging effect of war on those who report it 

• Both make a wider political point that one culture can’t fairly impose itself on another culture as of the dehumanising effects

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